City Research Online

Illusory feature slowing: Evidence for perceptual models of global facial change

Cook, R., Aichelburg, C. & Johnston, A. (2015). Illusory feature slowing: Evidence for perceptual models of global facial change. Psychological Science, 26(4), pp. 512-517. doi: 10.1177/0956797614567340

Abstract

Upright static faces are widely thought to recruit holistic representations, whereby individual features are integrated into nondecomposable wholes for recognition and interpretation. In contrast, little is known about the perceptual integration of dynamic features when viewing moving faces. People are frequently exposed to correlated eye and mouth movements, such as the characteristic changes that accompany facial emotion, yawning, sneezing, and laughter. However, it is unclear whether the visual system is sensitive to these dynamic regularities, encoding facial behavior relative to a set of dynamic global prototypes, or whether it simply forms piecemeal descriptions of feature states over time. To address this question, we sought evidence of perceptual interactions between dynamic facial features. Crucially, we found illusory slowing of feature motion in the presence of another moving feature, but it was limited to upright faces and particular relative-phase relationships. Perceptual interactions between dynamic features suggest that local changes are integrated into models of global facial change.

Publication Type: Article
Publisher Keywords: facial motion, phase, velocity, orientation, avatar
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Departments: School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Psychology
SWORD Depositor:
[thumbnail of Illusory feature slowing Cook et al.pdf]
Preview
Text - Accepted Version
Download (272kB) | Preview

Export

Add to AnyAdd to TwitterAdd to FacebookAdd to LinkedinAdd to PinterestAdd to Email

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

Actions (login required)

Admin Login Admin Login